ca

‖n. [ Ar. ka'bah, lit., a square building, fr. ka'b cube. ] The small and nearly cubical stone building, toward which all Muslims must pray. [ Written also kaaba. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The Caaba is situated in Mecca, a city of Arabia, and contains a famous black stone said to have been brought from heaven. Before the time of Mohammed, the Caaba was an idolatrous temple, but it has since been the chief sanctuary and object of pilgrimage of the Muslim world. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. sing. & pl. Case. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ Tupi caa-tinga white forest. ] (Phytogeography) A forest composed of stunted trees and thorny bushes, found in areas of small rainfall in Brazil. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. [ Abbrev. fr. cabriolet. ] 1. A kind of close carriage with two or four wheels, usually a public vehicle. “A cab came clattering up.” Thackeray. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ A cab may have two seats at right angles to the driver's seat, and a door behind; or one seat parallel to the driver's, with the entrance from the side or front. [ 1913 Webster ]

Hansom cab. See Hansom. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The covered part of a locomotive, in which the engineer has his station. Knight. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Heb. qab, fr. qābab to hollow. ] A Hebrew dry measure, containing a little over two (2.37) pints. W. H. Ward. 2 Kings vi. 25. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. cabale cabal, cabala, LL. cabala cabala, fr. Heb. qabbālēh reception, tradition, mysterious doctrine, fr. qābal to take or receive, in Piël qibbel to adopt (a doctrine). ] 1. Tradition; occult doctrine. See Cabala. [ Obs. ] Hakewill. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A secret. [ Obs. ] “The measuring of the temple, a cabal found out but lately.” B. Jonson. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A number of persons united in some close design, usually to promote their private views and interests in church or state by intrigue; a secret association composed of a few designing persons; a junto. [ 1913 Webster ]

It so happend, by a whimsical coincidence, that in 1671 the cabinet consisted of five persons, the initial letters of whose names made up the word cabal; Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley, and Lauderdale. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. The secret artifices or machinations of a few persons united in a close design; intrigue. [ 1913 Webster ]

By cursed cabals of women. Dryden.

Syn. -- Junto; intrigue; plot; combination; conspiracy. -- Cabal, Combination, Faction. An association for some purpose considered to be bad is the idea common to these terms. A combination is an organized union of individuals for mutual support, in urging their demands or resisting the claims of others, and may be good or bad according to circumstances; as, a combiniation of workmen or of employers to effect or to prevent a change in prices. A cabal is a secret association of a few individuals who seek by cunning practices to obtain office and power. A faction is a larger body than a cabal, employed for selfish purposes in agitating the community and working up an excitement with a view to change the existing order of things. “Selfishness, insubordination, and laxity of morals give rise to combinations, which belong particularly to the lower orders of society. Restless, jealous, ambitious, and little minds are ever forming cabals. Factions belong especially to free governments, and are raised by busy and turbulent spirits for selfish purposes”. Crabb. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Caballed p. pr. & vb. n. Caballing ]. [ Cf. F. cabaler. ] To unite in a small party to promote private views and interests by intrigue; to intrigue; to plot. [ 1913 Webster ]

Caballing still against it with the great. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ LL. See Cabal, n. ] 1. A kind of occult theosophy or traditional interpretation of the Scriptures among Jewish rabbis and certain mediæval Christians, which treats of the nature of god and the mystery of human existence. It assumes that every letter, word, number, and accent of Scripture contains a hidden sense; and it teaches the methods of interpretation for ascertaining these occult meanings. The cabalists pretend even to foretell events by this means. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Secret science in general; mystic art; mystery. [ 1913 Webster ]